President Barack Obama is slated to deliver a statement Wednesday morning after meeting with Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, the White House announced.
Obama was meeting with Shinseki and White House White House Deputy Chief of Staff Rob Nabors, who is overseeing a review of the VA health care system, as the agency faces allegations of treatment delays and preventable deaths at VA facilities. The President is scheduled to deliver his statement at 10:45 a.m. ET in the Brady Press Briefing Room.
At a VFW conference in July, 2012, Obama said, “For the first time ever, we’ve made military families and veterans a top priority not just at DOD, not just at the VA, but across the government.”
Two out of three ain’t bad.
No veteran should have to wait longer than is reasonable for the treatment they need. I think it is incumbent on the government, not just Obama, to look after those who serve the nation in the military. The VA administration and the Congress (who appropriate the funding for the VA) have dropped the ball.
I think the Surgeon General should be in charge of the VA…I mean what else do they do? That clears up a little of the bureaucracy.
IMHO the VA needs a warrior running the show, not an administrator. Let’s see who Obama appoints to succeed Shinseki.
As usual, this can be traced back to Congress. We’ve known for over a decade that the soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan would overwhelm the VA, but the funding hasn’t kept pace with this need. How is the VA supposed to have the same resources to deal with a million or more additional wounded veterans?
Then, once it becomes obvious that the backlog is a huge issue, some clown thinks it’s helpful to impose a 14-day deadline in which to see a veteran who needs an appointment. Really? Maybe we should cut more food stamps or school lunches and provide the VA with the resources it needs to do its job.